Worst colleague you've ever worked with?

[ThoseArentSpiritFingers]

Some of the stories popping up in the leaving work early thread have got me thinking about this, and thought we could share stories here to give me something to read

Worst person I've worked with was a guy in a bar who thought it was ok to serve underagers half pints because it wasn't a full pint.

Or the person who told me on one of his first shifts that he had a major come down. I was his supervisor at the time.

Or the person who arrived for a shift steaming, dropped and smashed 4 glasses in a row and had to be taken home. (Lived nearby so didn't take too long, but still)

Any stories to share?

I once worked for a boss in a v. small business who was ok to begin with, but things started sliding. It soon became apparent he couldn't organise a thing let alone run a business properly. I started in August and by November was being paid late. In December he ordered all kinds of expensive presents for his daughter and sent them to the office - where I and the other lady who worked there could see them, knowing we weren't being paid on time so couldn't afford good presents for our own families! He also used to mock me for not knowing tiny details of 80s culture... despite the fact I wasn't even born until the end of the 80s.

The new manager who took over and employed her son, daughter, mother, DiL, SiL, SiL's best friend and several other relatives. I once caught the son and DiL shagging upstairs.

The person who'd become ill at the start of every nightshift, take some Calpol and then go home leaving us very short staffed. She'd be in the building two hours, tops.

The carer I witnessed punch an old man in the head.

:(

The nurse I witnessed attack an elderly, bed bound lady. I ended up in court as a witness over that one.

:(

The nurse who'd put sugar in every resident's tea (even if they were diabetic) because she 'didn't have time' to make them properly. She'd just put one sugar in each cup.

A nurse who'd go around the nursing home telling the residents they were there because no one wanted them.

:(

The f*cker who headhunted me, signed me up and then ran off with a lap dancer in my first week leaving his whole department to deal with the social consequences. His wife did freelance for us and the atmosphere was dynamite.

Ex boss.
Had a tendency to fly into rages - he once came close to slapping me for not fixing the printer quickly enough, shook me hard because I was sending an email (work-related and totally legit) instead of doing the work he thought I ought to be doing instead, and once punched a colleague for disagreeing with him.

When he wasn't ragey he was creepy - he used to ask me to come into his office, shut the door and pull the blind down (I always declined to do the latter, which he thought was weird). In meetings I hated sitting next to him as he'd usually end up with his hand on my leg.

One day when he was out, his secretary decided to clear out his filing cabinet and found dozens of empty vodka bottles hidden inside.
I complained about him, but HR said I was 'being very rude and unkind' by refusing my boss's 'kind gestures' - "I would be flattered that he's taking an interest in you!"

When I left shortly after the shaking incident, a number of people who had transferred to other departments came out of the woodwork - all of them had been punched at some stage, and all had been told by HR that 'they must have done something to annoy him'.

treadheavily do spill (though she searches herself on here) I think she is one of the most irritating people in print and can't believe how often she is rent-a-gobbing on daytime TV.

My current collegues are a nightmare. And my boss likes to roetend she is nice and then stabs you in the back. I'm currently signed off work due to depression caused entireley by them, particularly the boss.

guy who used to sit me down for 30 minutes and tell me how I could be more like him and better at my job (I was hitting all my targets at the time)

crushed my confidence and bullied me.

I had a word with my manager who had a word with him about appropriate behaviour.

well he came back in shouting and threatening me and being aggressive (in front of witnesses luckily)

I filed an official complaint with manager/ hr and he was found to be guilty.

then he claimed I had sexually harrassed him 6 months earlier! that was dismissed in 5 minutes max but I was mortified.

he didnt get sacked but moved off our team and away from me. I see him twice a week now in passing.

Wow my prostitute-hiring MD and sexist misogynist colleagues (who berate me for not going out drinking with them enough) seem positively pleasant compared to some of these people!

MD is passive aggressive bully and his "favourite" of the team is a guy who is the worst sexist, a total coward, not very clever wrt his job but very good at manipulation and politics, very lazy and would not help anyone out unless there is a way for it to make him look good to the boss. He is a liar as well and steals extra holidays, spreads rumours and stabs people in the back. I hate him so much but have to pretend to get on with him

My old 'manager'. She was about 4ft tall, reeked of cigarettes (we worked with food) and constantly half cut. She came in one day pissed and threatened me with a knife and locked a colleague in a cupboard.
Happy memories

A guy I worked with who was great until I was promoted to the same management level and pay as him. He had a major problem then. He would fire off abusive emails, and not mail them...but print them off and throw them at me. I came back from a week off to find he'd taken my office and moved my stuff to an empty desk in the open plan area. I was head of the finance dept. and had confidential files etc. but HR said it would be too much hassle to move everything back. He would contradict me in front of customers in meetings...a really important client told him to shutup as I was the one who knew what I was doing. After months of my complaining, HR sorted the problem by making him my direct manager [hmmm].
I arrived in the next morning and handed him a month's notice....and a month's sicknote . By the time my notice was over he'd been sacked and they begged me to come back - not a chance!

Worked as an administrator just out of Uni with another administrator... as a team. If the manager told her WE had to do something she wouldn't tell me. She'd never relay messages. She did all the tasks herself so I had to sit there twiddling my thumbs. She would leave post its on everything saying "Do Filling" (always did wonder what she wanted filling?! stupid cow!)
This ended in her reporting ME to the managers for bullying!!
After she sat in the intervention sobbing at how awful I was to her she walked out and my managers said I was the 5th administrator she had reported for bullying and not to worry.
Weirdo! Bet she's still there now.

A woman who is annoyingly quite good at her job (except she never helps out the HCAs!) and spends her time bitching and backstabbing anyone who doesn't meet her 'standards'.

I've thought of a another one...

I briefly worked in an estate agents and one of the women who worked there had obviously only got the because she was in the same circle of friends as the boss. He very obviously fancied her and she played on that.

She was allowed to come and go as she pleased and would disappear into his office for hour long "chats". Her personal set up was also rather odd. Shortly before joining the company she'd jilted her fiancé weeks before their wedding, but he still paid her mobile phone bill, her car insurance/tax and her mortgage and would boast about this. despite her them not being together anymore.

She had a lovely big house despite being a single mum and had frequent exotic holidays. I could never work out how she afforded it? We didn't earn a lot. Her daughter was actually lovely, but it was a very AbFab type relationship. Daughter more grown up and mature than her mum.

One day a new team member joined us and it turned out she'd known this woman years before, he stories she told us about how she'd been the village bike and the salacious rumours about her allegedly being a high class hooker. None of which surprised us one jot.

I worked in one office in a two-person team. We shared a very small room. My colleague used to eat a LOT of garlic. I suspect she was eating whole bulbs of it, raw, the stench used to make my eyes water.

I worked in a lovely team, sales oriented, very friendly. A new saleswoman joined, seemed very pleasant, had an MBA and was very good at her job. After big organisational shake up she got put in charge, turned into superbitch and broke up the company. She was a pathological liar, couldn't manage for toffee and took a delight in using info she'd gained as a colleague to drive people under. She drove more than half the salesforce out with her dictatorial, bullying ways. She started in on me when she realised I was trying for a baby after multiple miscarriages. Bitch pushed me out of my job and made me redundant during a HR meeting where I was complaining about her. I blame HR for it too to be fair. The HR manager was awful. I ended up with an out of court settlement. She ended up having a breakdown and being sacked. Awful, awful woman but I confess that I ended up feeling a bit sorry for her. I do feel that she had a lot of mental issues going on. Scary thing is, tho, she went onto a bigger and better job!

Colleague was a big bloke - about a foot taller than me and fat and an aggressive drunk. He consistently arrived an hour late blaming the trains. I lived on the same train line as him so each time was able to confirm that the trains had been running fine. He didn't care how obvious his lies were. Every time the boss was out of the office/at meetings/away he would promptly claim he was taken ill and go home early. He would go on endless "site inspections" so it was actually rare that he would be in the office. He would go drinking after work with the younger lads. They would only have a couple before going home. He would stay out all night getting blotto then phone in sick the next day. If any one suggested that perhaps he just had a hangover he would get aggressive.

He fell behind in his work so asked me to do his work for him in secret so he could pretend that he'd done it. I said I'd do his work but only openly - I pointed out that our boss wasn't stupid and could recognise our differing work styles - for this he shouted at me screaming that I lacked team spirit. The next time he asked I said again that I'd do his work openly but not secretly and that if he asked me to do it secretly again I'd report him. The next time I did report him. The time after that I reminded him that he was already reported. I didn't take kindly to his attempts to use his size and aggression to intimidate me.

It took my poor boss over a year to get rid of him, HR were so useless. He lasted one morning in his next job - before they mutually parted ways.

I once stood and listened (I was "only the cleaner" and thus invisible) while the Matron (who was a qualified registered nurde) and the head care assistant (NVQ level 4) stood at the bedside of an elderly lady with pretty severe dementia and the gist of their conversation was that yes, she may well have broken her hip, but they couldn't get the doctor or an ambulance now as the colour of her bruising would show that it had been several days since her fall :( :(
They also moved the same lady to a different room, on the second floor, when her room was all she knew and she was totally confused by the move, and when she died, the night staff left her until the morning and didn't even lay her straight in bed. She is the only person I've ever seen after they died who didn't look at peace, she looked like she'd died all alone and afraid and now I made myself cry again thinking about it.
(The home is long since closed, there were various other serious incidents, including a death that was basically manslaughter by negligence and they just couldn't hide what was going on anymore)

A partner in a law firm who refused me permission to go home when I was on chemotherapy (i.e. immuno-supressed) and a colleague came into the office with shingles.

The second-worst was the colleague with shingles who came into the office with it and refused to leave despite knowing I was immuno-supressed!

Worked for a forestry company once where my manager was a born-again Christian (nothing wrong with that per se) who insisted that we prayed before every meeting, and who offered to 'lay hands on me' when I had a headache. I declined. One day, one of our contracted workers had a fit (literally, a fit), and I called for the boss to phone for an ambulance, as the poor guy was lying, spasming, on the floor (I was making sure he didn't hurt himself at the time, so couldn't get to the phone). The bossman continued his work phone call he was on before he called 999, and then treated the whole thing as an inconvenience. Some Christian attitude there! I resigned shortly after this incident.

God, too many to mention but one that really stands out:
Years ago, I worked as a training coordinator fora large training & recruitment company with a head hunting arm. The newly appointed CEO was a psychopath. He used to rejoice in goading people and intimidating them to the point where they would have a nervous breakdown and leave. He would litterally rub his hands together and grin at the thought of choosing the next victim. One day he told the (lovely) HR manager she better leave before she got the sack because - and I quote - "youre a big fat god bothering fairy who doesnt know what the hell she's doing." Poor woman. I was then appointed HR Manager in her place. When I protested he said, oh dont worry about the extra work, Ill make sure you stay until youve done it all. After a month of working 70 hour weeks I escaped. He got the boot shortly after. I still see him occassionally. I run and hide.

Pombear thats awful.
Have had a few, but mainly the psycho who sat next to me, who seemed to be Ok until her boyfriend went back to his wife, so she started stalking him - ringing his work several hundred times a day (When boss was away) and abusing the receptionist who had also been married to him (He was a bit of a player !). After the receptionist complained, psycho got the boot. It wasn't the first time she'd done stuff like that, and to be honest her ex didn't really sound like much of a catch !

I had the boss who threw a coin at my head as hard as she could (she missed by an inch), another who got so angry and hit the table so hard when I pointed out that we were letting customers down that he needed stitches in his hand. He then blamed me for "winding him up" I pointed out that is the same kind of thing men who abuse women in realationships say!